Last week saw 216 lives lost to COVID-19, the highest death toll since the pandemic took hold in March 2020. September 22, 2021, alone saw 47 deaths, equalling the previous peak recorded during the pandemic's second wave in April this year. So far, over 5,300 people have succumbed to the virus. The spike in cases over the past month is attributed to the delta variant, which the US Centre for Disease Control characterises as twice as deadly as previous strains. The total number of people vaccinated has surpassed 2.75 million, less than three percent of the population.